Thursday, June 28, 2012

Guest Blogger Week: Spanish Vocabulary Cube

Hello, everyone! I'm Tabitha Carro from FlapJack Educational Resources, and I am very appreciative to Krista for the opportunity to guest blog for her!

In this post, I would like to share a fun activity I did last year with my Spanish immersion students to practice vocabulary in a crafty, hands-on way. Since we were studying 3D objects anyways, I decided to have them make vocabulary cubes. Here's an example:

I found a random template on the internet and printed out enough copies for my students on cardstock. After the students put their cubes together, they were instructed to draw and write the name of an object in Spanish inside each face of the cube for the following categories:

1) A food item

2) A family member (prima, nieto, etc.)

3) A verb

4) An adjective

5) A body part

6) A noun

I asked them to try to think of words that maybe they hadn't learned yet in Spanish. After they completed the drawings and labels, they split up into groups of three. They took turns tossing each others' cubes and using the object they landed on in a sentence (If you have beginners, they could just translate the word to English.).

After a few minutes, the students got creative and started tossing two or three cubes at a time and making sentences with two or three words.

Next year, to create more accountability, I will probably have students copy their sentences onto a sheet of paper to turn into me as a team effort.

All in all, it was a fun, effective activity for practicing vocabulary. To make it run smoother next year, I've created my own template that is already labeled and has instructions. Just click on the image below to download your own FREE copy.

Muchas gracias de nuevo a Krista for this opportunity! If you'd like more info. on me and my resources, just click on any of the following links.

I think that you could use it with younger or older students. It would be perfect for language learners of all ages in my opinion! With little ones they could just practice rolling and reading the words perhaps. With my students as Tabitha has shared, I think it would be great to have them use the word they roll in a sentence!